Reloading 30-06 Sabot

[tbs]

I picked up some Sabot's a couple years ago and tried loading 55 grain and 69 grain sierras .224 bullets. I only tested one powder charge in each just to see if they would even slightly work. The 69 grain actually shot better than the the 55's. As i recall i got about a 4 inch group at 50 yards with the 69 grain hpbt bullets and about an 8 inch group with the 55's.
The 10 twist in my 30-06 was enough to stabilize the 69 gain bullets fine so those are what i will continue to experiment with.
The real problem with loading the sabot is controlling bullet run out, which i'm still sorting out.
Do the current problem getting bullets, primers and powder I'm going to re-visit this and focus on tweaking the load. I'm sitting on 1000 69 grain Sierras but am low on my 30 cal.155 grain Palma bullets and i got cabin fever!

 

[Swampman]

I've got some old pressure tested '06 sabot data from Accurate Powder if you wanna PM me your email address.

Personally, I've had much better accuracy using flat based bullets with sabots.

 

[WestKentucky]

Depending upon how you are seating a bullet, you may be introducing some concentricity issues. Ever since I figured out what the LEWilson bullet seater does it seems like it eliminates a lot of issues that I wouldn’t have ever really considered. Is your shellholder perfectly aligned with the seater stem? Are you allowing the case to wiggle around inside of the shell holder? Does your bullet profile match the seater stem well? It seems like in a plastic sabot that all of these minor issues that are minimal when loading full sized bullets would be exacerbated.

 

[tbs]

Depending upon how you are seating a bullet, you may be introducing some concentricity issues. Ever since I figured out what the LEWilson bullet seater does it seems like it eliminates a lot of issues that I wouldn’t have ever really considered. Is your shellholder perfectly aligned with the seater stem? Are you allowing the case to wiggle around inside of the shell holder? Does your bullet profile match the seater stem well? It seems like in a plastic sabot that all of these minor issues that are minimal when loading full sized bullets would be exacerbated.

My typical run out is less than .03. Don't ever have run out problems with my Forster or my RCBS dies. I use an old rock chucker that always gives straight ammo. It's the sabot that's the variable, but like i said i need to work that out. I don't expect great results, as this is a just for the fun of it project.

 

[bullseye308]

I tried them quite a few years ago in 30-30, 7.62x39, and 308. I could not get an accurate load in any of them with 2460, varget, or 4895 past 50 yards, and even those were not great. Great concept, but I couldn’t get them to work in a marlin 30-30, Chinese sks, rem700, or Egyptian MAADI AK. All of them shot anything else very well.

 

[WestKentucky]

Come on guys... if Mark Wahlberg could do it at a mile with a re-used bullet in “shooter” then surely it can be done in real life...

 

[FROGO207]

I cant remember what brand mine were but they are a light gray color and for my testing in 30-06, 308, 30 Carbine I would have better results using a Wrist Rocket! I still have 400 or so tucked back for just in case but that would be quite a need.

 

[tbs]

I just seated one in an empty case and adjusted die. Run out is .09 --- not good but not terrible considering.